Quick brown bread with treacle & sesame seeds

'This 'no rise' bread is quick and easy to make if you're in a hurry'

Rachel Allen, 'Bake', p109

Firstly, my apologies for the delay in blogging this. I actually made it last Saturday, in the midst of preparing for a week away. The small ones and I are having a week with Granny and Grandpa in Wales. Mummy is loving the rest, and Evan and Megan are being happily spoiled!

Anyway, I digress. I had my doubts about this bread, as when I've tried out 'quick' breads in the breadmaker, they generally taste of nothing. This, however, was delicious! Super easy to make - you just mix up dry ingredients, then stir in the wet. Pour into a tin, sprinkle with seeds and hey presto, it's ready to bake! It contains buttermilk so is more like a soda bread, and quite heavy. Not really a sandwich bread, but great with butter; jam; cheese or pate. 

Halfway through, I realised I'd made a blunder and only bought 284mls of buttermilk, whereas the recipe calls for 400mls. I just topped up with normal milk, and it seemed to work. I used a 'Four seed mix' from our local health store, both in the mixture and sprinkled on top. It includes sesame; pumpkin; sunflower and linseeds and makes the bread feel all the more wholesome.

Hoping to try Rachel's 'Easy gluten-free white bread' next. Mum is trying to cut out gluten so would be great to try while we're here. However, after visiting a few supermarkets, none of them have the special ingredients - rice flour; potato flour; soya flour; and xanthum gum (?!) Off to the health foood shop tomorrow, to see if we have any more luck!

Oatmeal & Raisin Cookies

'An American favourite,  these cookies are moist, sweet and very moreish'

Rachel Allen, 'Bake', p12

Whipped these up in a spare half hour last night, after the small ones had gone to bed. Very

quick and easy, and Nigel used Rachel's exact words - "very moreish".

A slight word of warning... I tend to use salted butter in baking, which is a tip picked up from Holly Bell, of Great British Bake Off and www.recipesfromanormalmum.com. She suggests that the slight saltiness works really well as a contrast to sweetness - I agree (think Hob-Nob biscuits, yum!) I used salted butter in this recipe,  without thinking that the recipe also included a teaspoon of salt. We still really enjoyed the cookies, but they may have been too salty for some. Hope you like the picture - Nigel has been passing on his photography skills!

A postscript to our cottage pie experience, as mentioned in the last post. The recipe included 4 large cloves of garlic in the filling,  and 3-4 cloves in the garlic butter topping.  Definitely one for garlic lovers only. The next day we could still taste garlic,  and the house whiffed of it for 2 days! Nigel says it's destroyed any dreams he had of a romantic night with Rachel. It's all coming out now! But seriously, I think we'll stick with our own classic recipe next time. Sorry Rachel!

So; 3 recipes down, 138 to go. Tomorrow it's 'Quick brown bread with treacle and sesame seeds'. See you then!

Peanut butter & white chocolate blondies/ Cottage pie

So to begin! After much head scratching, and wondering quite where to begin, I conducted a survey among my Facebook friends. . I asked the question "what is your favourite cake/ baked treat?" Out of 32 replies, there was an interesting variety of answers. But chocolate brownies were the definite winner! So, that was my starting point. Well, blondies actually... the white chocolate version of Brownies. A nice easy start too! You may notice from the picture that some were darker than others.  This was due to me only having dark brown sugar,  not light brown as Rachel specified. It worked, although they were more 'brunette' than 'blondie'! Wanting to do this properly though, I bought some light brown sugar and made a second batch.These were definitely better, with a much lighter texture and flavour.

Lesson learned from a previous brownie making session... when they are cooked they feel quite underdone in the middle, just crispy around the outside. I cooked these for 25 minutes, the minimum that Rachel specifies. I wasnt quite sure that they were cooked after that, but decided to be brave. In the end they firmed up a lot, I think I could have cooked them even less as they were quite crispy. Delicious though! We had the in-laws round for dinner on Friday evening, served these as pudding with vanilla ice cream and salted caramel sauce. Fantastic!

This evening, I tried out the cottage pie recipe from the 'Baked Meals' section of the book. It's a pretty standard cottage pie recipe,  apart from the garlic butter added after cooking, which melts into the hot potato. Sounded interesting, but I'm not sure how much it added. Nigel declared that he preferred my version, with added baked beans. A compliment indeed! Sorry Rachel, I'm being critical already and that wasn't my intention!

On a personal note, we have reached a milestone in the French household today. Megan has reached the grand age of 3 months! This means that she is big enough for her door bouncer. I mention this as Evan adored the bouncer from about 3-9 months.  We had a nice routine where I'd put him in it on the kitchen door, while I cooked tea. Simon Mayo on the radio, he'd bounce happily while I cooked and sung along. Hoping it's as much of a hit with Megan, so I can crack on with this project. Looking good so far!

Hello, and how it all began!

Welcome! If you're reading this blog, you probably know me pretty well already. However, just in case...

I'm a 30 something mother of 2 - My first born being Evan, a loveable but stroppy nearly 4 year old. His interest in baking currently extends to licking the bowl! 12 weeks ago, he was joined by baby Megan, my laid back bundle of loveliness! The success of this blog may depend on me getting her into a nap routine (failed spectacularly at this with Evan!) I've been married for 8 years to Nigel, a sports photographer and very willing recipient of my baking.

I work as a paediatric nurse at Rainbows Hospice for Children and Young People,  in Loughborough.  An amazing and privileged job, although tough at times. Pootling around in the kitchen is a great escape from all the stresses and strains.

So how did this all start? Well, it must be at least 10 years ago now. I was working on the neonatal unit, and had just picked up a Jamie Oliver book from The Book People. One of my colleagues said "oh, don't bother with cookbooks,  nobody ever makes more than 2 recipes from any one".  Maybe she had a point... I've only ever made his Pukkola (which is darn good!) But since then, I've thought it would be a good challenge to work through a cookbook.  Then some 4 years ago, Nigel and I were on holiday in Aldeburgh - our last hurrah before Evan arrived. We went to see Julie and Julia at the cinema,  I loved it and thought maybe I could blog a cookbook too!

So why now? I've no idea, it's not as if my children fill my time! Maybe it's my mind wanting to think something other than baby now and again while I'm on maternity leave. Or perhaps that breastfeeding leaves me constantly starving and a bit obsessed with food. Or, it may have a teensy bit to do with the fabulous KitchenAid that I received for Christmas (thanks, Santa Nigel xx)  Whatever the reason, here I am!

And why Rachel? Well, the choice was between Delia's Complete Cookery Collection (the practical choice), The Great British Bake Off (probably the most fun and calorific) or one of Rachel's books. Rachel is definitely my favourite celebrity chef, I love her laidback approach and find her recipes easy to follow. Don't get me wrong Delia, I think you're great and I grew up on your Complete Cookery Collection. But you do remind me of a scary school cookery teacher. Whereas Rachel makes me think of cooking with a friend, and just having lots of fun. I put the question of which to choose to my Facebook friends, and Rachel came out tops. However, a few people said they looked forward to sharing my successes,  and baking seemed to lend itself to that. What fun, a project for myself but also something to make other people happy! So, Rachel's 'Bake' it is!

I was initially planning to do this in a year, however after counting some 140 recipes, thought this may be a little ambitious!  So I'm going to attempt it over the next 2 years, and hope you'll enjoy the journey with me.

Now, what to bake first?